Dengue Serotype II: Odisha Among 11 States Issued Warning By Centre

New Delhi:  Odisha is among the 11 states to be issued a warning by the Centre of dengue serotype II cases.

The other states are Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. The Centre on Saturday urged these states to take necessary measures for the prevention and control of dengue and other vector-borne diseases.

As per the official statement of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan suggested that these states undertake steps like early detection of cases, operationalisation of fever helplines and adequate stocking of testing kits, larvicides and medicines. The Union Health Secretary also recommended deployment of rapid response teams for prompt investigation and necessary Public Health Action like fever survey, contact tracing, vector control, alerting blood banks for maintaining adequate stocks of blood and blood components, especially platelets.

States were also requested to undertake IEC campaigns regarding helplines, methods of vector control, source reduction at homes and symptoms of dengue.

Earlier, the health ministry had also issued an advisory to these states in August and on September 10.

Stressed on the need to strictly enforce COVID Appropriate Behaviour (CAB), he expressed concern over certain pockets in the country reporting high test positivity and advised the State Health administrators to undertake granular analysis of their COVID trajectory, ramp up their health infrastructure, undertake stocking of essential medicine and augment human resources at the earliest, to meet any potential surge in coronavirus cases.